Back to the future: republishing Bradford Hill and more from our archive

Abstract

We look ahead to 2015 by looking back 50 years. Any historian will tell you that the answers to our current problems can be found in events of the past. The pace of medical advance makes this concept difficult to apply to current clinical practice but last month's JRSM gave the example of the relevance of John Haygarth's work in the 18th century to our present difficulties in dealing with Ebola.1 The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine has been continuously published in various guises since 1809. It was a journal before The BMJ and The Lancet came into existence. The journal has had other names. It began as Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, and with the formation of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1907 changed name to Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. This name better reflected the role of the journal in reporting on momentous presentations at the RSM. The focus of Proceedings was very much on the clinical debates and lectures at the society. But medicine changed. International meetings are now the forum for announcing clinical breakthroughs. The RSM has a different role, focused on education, updating specialists on the latest developments in the world of medicine and not just events at Wimpole Street. The journal has changed accordingly, and as the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine it seeks to educate and inform a multispecialty readership, and publish important new research of relevance to its readers. As such, the articles in JRSM don't often arise from meetings at RSM, although such articles are happily considered for publication. Historical pieces were once a mainstay of this journal. When I started as editor I made the decision to cover less medical history to leave space for content of more direct relevance to current clinical practice and health policy. There is still room though for interesting historical pieces, as a quick browse through last year's issues will confirm. Indeed, our regular section from the James Lind Library is a treasure trove of historical developments in clinical research.2 Last year, the complete back archive of JRSM dating back to 1809 was made available on the journal's website.3 Thanks to our access policy, the vast majority of this rich content is free. The pages of the journal tell the story of the major events in medicine and allow us to reflect on the challenges faced by our clinical colleagues from a different age. We might learn from their experiences. In appreciation of this history we start a new feature that will each month republish a piece from the JRSM of 50 years ago. We begin with a landmark article by Austin Bradford Hill on association and causation in epidemiology.4 An accompanying editorial by Richard Wakeford explains its importance.5 Wakeford argues that Bradford Hill's article remains of relevance today, perhaps more so than ever, and proposes that it should be required reading for the medical profession and beyond.